The Ye Surname (叶): From the State of Ye to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Fief That Became a Name The Ye surname begins with a place that outlived its state. Twenty-five hundred years ago, on the floodplain of what is now Ye County, Henan (叶县, Yè Xiàn), lay the fief of Ye (叶邑, Yè Yì) — first recorded in the annals in 576 BCE. The small state it
The Su (苏) Surname: From the Ancient State of Su to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Su (苏) Surname: From the Ancient State of Su to the Wuyi Diaspora A State Gives Its Name (苏国) The Su (苏, Sū) surname traces its origins to the ancient State of Su, a Zhou-era vassal state in what is today Wen County, Henan — and from that small principality a lineage that produced
The Zeng (曾) Surname: From Confucian Lineage to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Zeng (曾) Surname: From Confucian Lineage to the Wuyi Diaspora A Sage’s Name: The Kingdom That Became the Surname The Zeng (曾, Zēng) surname carries a Confucian pedigree no other Wuyi surname can claim: its first ancestor is 曾子 (Zēngzǐ, Zengzi), the disciple Confucius made the model of filial piety and later canonized as
The Li (黎) Surname: From the Ancient State of Li to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Li (黎) Surname: From the Ancient State of Li to the Wuyi Diaspora The Siyi region of Guangdong sent over two million people overseas between 1840 and 1940 — and among the surnames carried in that great crossing was 黎 (Li), a name whose written form had already endured for over two thousand years,
The Yu (余) Surname: From Shaoguan Statesmen to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Yu (余) Surname: From Shaoguan Statesmen to the Wuyi Diaspora A Statesman’s Name The Yu (余, Yú) surname — Yu in Mandarin, Yee in Cantonese, Eu or U in Hokkien and Teochew — traces its Wuyi roots to a Northern Song minister whose descendants built the grandest clan hall in the diaspora. That minister
The Tan (谭) Surname: From an Ancient State of Shandong to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Tan (谭) Surname: From an Ancient State of Shandong to the Wuyi Diaspora In the winter of 684 BCE, an army of the State of Qi marched against its small neighbor and erased it from the map. The State of Tan (谭国, Tán Guó) — a minor polity in today’s Zhangqiu, Shandong, whose old
The Cai (蔡) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty State to the Wuyi Diaspora
In 1046 BCE, King Wu of Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty and began distributing territory to his brothers and allies. His fifth brother, Ji Du (姬度), received a fief in what is now Shangcai County (上蔡县), Henan Province. The state was called Cai (蔡国). For the next 600 years, through 25 rulers, the State of
The He (贺) Surname: From Wu State Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora
The He (贺) Surname: From Wu State Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora Not every Chinese surname begins with a murder. This one does. If your surname is He — written 贺, not 何 — you carry a name born from one of the most dramatic assassinations in Chinese history. In 514 BCE, in the state
The Guo (郭) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Guo (郭) Surname: From Zhou Dynasty Nobility to the Wuyi Diaspora The Guo (郭) surname carries one of the longest continuously documented lineages in Chinese history — three thousand years from the Zhou dynasty’s founding brothers to the diaspora communities of the Wuyi (四邑) region (trace your own surname origins with our Surname Compass).
The Luo (罗) Surname: From Fire God Origins to the Wuyi Diaspora
The Thread of a Name Of the hundred family surnames that structure Chinese identity, few trace their lineage to a fire god. The Luo (罗) clan does. The Chinese surname system is among the world’s oldest continuous genealogical traditions, with many surnames reaching back 2,500 years or more to the Zhou dynasty. But the Luo
The Xie (谢) Surname: From Shen Bo to the Wuyi Diaspora
A Name That Carries a Civilization The Xie (谢) surname — the 23rd most common in China, carried by approximately ten million people worldwide — holds one of the most concentrated legacies in Chinese history. In the span of 2,800 years, members of this single family line saved a dynasty from annihilation, founded Chinese landscape
The Feng (冯) Surname: From Northern Yan Dynasty to the Wuyi Diaspora
Three thousand years ago, a Zhou Dynasty prince received a fiefdom in the northern plains of what is now Hebei Province. The territory was called Fengcheng (冯城) — Feng City — and when Bi Gong Gao (毕公高), the fifteenth son of King Wen of Zhou (周文王), took up residence there, his descendants adopted the place